Had to ditch Disqus from my comments section.

I've been having horrendous issues with Disqus all month. I have not been getting any email notifications when someone comments on my blog so I decided to delete Disqus and return to Blogger's original comment option. 

Now comments from 2018-2020 have disappeared from my blog, and I am really, really not happy about that, but I have to move on. Know that I did read them-even commented myself this morning before my frustration kicked in and I ditched Disqus for good.

Sorry for any inconvenience or annoyance this has caused to my readers- I feel the same trust me. 

God bless you all, 

Julie

Prayers please for my Grandmother

Greetings in Christ, 

Some you who've followed me over the years knows I am a Catholic convert, my Grandmother Maybelle was my sponsor in becoming Catholic. And I will always be especially thankful to her for helping me and my children become Catholic. I have wonderful memories of my conversion and my Grandmother plays a big part in it.

I have always been close to my Grandmother (to all my grandparents actually-I was blessed to have them all most of my life even my great-grandparents). When my Grandmother began to show signs of Alzheimer disease and could no longer drive, I did all her driving and shopping. After a few years with in home care she got too bad to live in her home and needed 24/7 care that our family could no longer provide so she went to a nursing home. 

At that time, I told the nursing home my Grandmother was Catholic and had asked the nursing home if they had a visiting priest. I was told yes that a priest visited each week, so I had my Grandmother added to the list of patients the priest visited.  

My parents got a phone call yesterday from my Grandmother's nursing home that she had stopped eating and while she is still taking some fluids they were letting us know she is now in a "hospice" situation and that they didn't expect she would live beyond a few weeks or a month. 

Yesterday after the phone call, I went to the nursing home's website to see if it had been updated before calling them (their website in years past hadn't mentioned any clergy so I didn't know where the priest came from). On their website I found a page for "hospice patients" options and services. I figured this is the page that will tell me where the priest comes from. I scroll down the page and find "...all our Chaplains are non-denominational..." and my head explodes! 

I am so stinking mad right now! I had specifically told them my Grandmother was Catholic and I wanted to know if they provided a Catholic priest or I would have gotten one to visit her myself over the years. Now I find out all these years she never had a Catholic priest visit her or bring her any of the Sacraments! I am steaming mad, but thankful to Our Lord that she didn't die before I found this out. 

So I am getting her a real Catholic priest today to give her Last Rites. 

And I am asking all who read this post, to please take a moment and say a prayer for my Grandmother Maybelle, her Patron Saint is "Saint Therese, the Little Flower". 

Thank you all and God bless you, 

Julie 

Prayer Vigil for Life in Connecticut

Prayer Vigil for Life

St Ambrose Parish at St Monica's Church (Northford)

Wednesday, January 22, 2020
the 47th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade

5pm - Holy Hour before the Most Blessed Sacrament
6pm - Holy Mass celebrated by Fr Robert L. Turner

The Church has designated January 22nd - the anniversary of Roe v. Wade - as a day of prayer for the protection of the unborn and penance for sins against the dignity of the human person. Join us at St. Monica's for a vigil of prayer on behalf of life. All are welcome and no RSVP is necessary.

"A great prayer for life is urgently needed, a prayer which will rise up throughout the world. Through special initiatives and in daily prayer, may an impassioned plea rise to God, the Creator and lover of life, from every Christian community, from every group and association, from every family and from the heart of every believer."

- Pope Saint John Paul II, The Gospel of Life 

++++
Paul A. Zalonski
Catholic Connecticut
255 Foxon Hill Road
East Haven, CT 06513-1216 USA

Email Paul: CatholicCT@gmail.com

Follow Paul on Twitter @CatholicCT
Connect with Paul on Facebook "Catholic Connecticut CatholicCT"

Church Militant's The Download is New Coke

Anyone who has followed my blog knows I support Church Militant and I am a big fan of their programming. The first thing I do each morning when getting online is go to CM-before any other site- and watch the latest Vortex episode. My day always begins with Church Militant. 

My three favorite programs Church Militant has ever done are the 'One True Faith' series, the 'Case Files' series by Simon Rafe and the old 'Download' show. 

Last summer the Download went off the air and didn't come back until yesterday because CM was doing extensive construction and remodeling work. I couldn't wait to have The Download back.

I was so very disappointed when I tuned in because The Download I loved was gone. What it was replaced by had none of the charm of the original. We had original Coke and what CM gave us yesterday was New Coke- from the comments on CM's website and their Youtube Channel I wasn't alone in my feelings. 

I'm not only sad for myself but also for the people at CM because I know they all worked so hard and they were excited about what they were doing. Everyone wanted it to be great, but its not.

I didn't like anything about the new Download. I hated it and I want to talk about why I hated it today. 

I am a news hound. I watch too many hours of secular news every day. I watch local news, Fox News, MSNBC and even some CNN to hear what everyone is saying about what is happening in the world. 

When I tune into Church Militant the last thing I want is to be brought back to secular news. I want something above that. I want something steeped in Catholicism. I want not only what I hear to draw me into my Faith, I want what I see to do the same. I want to be pulled out of the secular world and planted firmly back into the Catholic world. The way a beautiful old Catholic church rich in stained glass and art is always worlds above a modern church that has nothing visual to offer its people. Church Militant's The Download used to do that for me. 

I want to start with the music. Oh how I miss the old music! The old show used to begin at 1 pm so I would typically go to CM about 10 minutes before the show and listen to their music leading up to the show. During this time I would make my tea, read some mail etc, always keeping my ear to the music playing because that spoke to me. I knew exactly when the show would start because the music changed. I would put down the mail, grab my mug of tea and settle in to watch The Download just as Christine Niles would appear on screen giving me the Catholic news headlines. I adored my ritual and getting the news headlines from Christine before we all settled in to a one topic discussion on The Download. 

You might think I am being dramatic, but I miss that. This was an important part of my day, a daily ritual for me that I have truly missed. Yesterday I was so happy to get back to my ritual I couldn't wait for 1:30 pm (new time slot) to get here. I was crushed when the music was gone. I had been missing that...more than I knew. It never occurred to me that CM would change the music leading up to the show and I was terribly disappointed because my ritual was ruined and gone. Then the show appeared and I was heartbroken. 

CM's The Download used to be filmed inside their "Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Studio" complete with the spectacular large St. Michael statue and the soothing colors of blues and purples - to me and others who also mentioned this in CM's comments, Mary and Jesus colors. The tone and feel was not at all like mainstream secular media and that was a very good thing. The table CM's hosts sat behind was inviting and calming. It was like they were sitting across the table from me, talking to me about a Catholic topic-one topic so the discussion was in depth and I learned from it. Even if the topic was tragic, the people and the setting were calming to me-we were in this together-sort of thing. I was engaged, charmed and I wanted the discussion to go on for hours while I drank my tea. Most days when the show ended I would get a refill of my tea and watch the show all over again. This was my must see show every day and I am completely heartbroken its gone.  

The Download January 14, 2019

The new studio that the people at Church Militant refer to as "the pit" is not charming, it's off putting. 

The Download January 14, 2020

The Download went from an inviting room where I felt welcome to sit down and join in, to a vast warehouse stuffed with wires, blaring lights, distracting secular media screens and a ticker. The tiny bar stool type table is the same one shown on MSNBC! And I hate it.

They went from Catholic to secular. I am stunned. I honestly can't believe CM did this. I can't believe no one at CM saw the problems with this. 

As one person commented on CM's Download yesterday, there is no way Michael is going to dance on the new table like he did election night in 2016. 

And the problems aren't just the visual and music, its the content too. The greatness of the one topic Download's of the past where one topic is discussed in depth has been tossed out the window and replaced by multiple topics mentioned in passing because time is ticking. No deep discussions, no thoughtful reflections because there is no time for those things anymore. 

They've morphed the Download into a sort of 30 minute evening news show and it stinks. I'm all for CM doing that sort of thing if they want to, but it should have been done with Christine Niles' headline news, not The Download show. 

I can't say enough how very disappointed I am with everything CM has done. I miss the old music, I miss the Fulton Sheen studio, I miss the long in depth discussions, I miss Simon Rafe, I miss having four people at the table rather than three on bar stools. 

Church Militant made some huge unfortunate mistakes this time. I pray and truly hope they ditch "the pit" and bring back the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen studio we all loved so much. 

Chalk it up as a mistake and return to what people fell in love with about the show. You don't need to fix what ain't broken. Ditch the New Coke and please, please give us back old Coke!

I'm praying CM listens to their supporters.

In Christ,

Julie 

200 members of Congress are urging the Supreme Court to take another look at Roe vs Wade

While I am instantly thrilled to see this, I don't like the timing on this at all. This being an election year the Democrats had NOTHING to run on that truly fired people up...until now. 

Washington (CNN) More than 200 members of Congress are urging the Supreme Court to reconsider -- if not overrule -- the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide.
Thirty-nine Republican senators and 168 members of the House of Representatives, almost all of them Republicans, signed a so-called "friend of the court" brief filed on Thursday by the national anti-abortion group Americans United for Life in connection with a challenge to a Louisiana abortion access law due to be heard in March.
The signers include Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Mike Lee and Mitt Romney of Utah, and Tim Scott of South Carolina as well as Reps. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Steve Chabot of Ohio.
At least two Democrats -- Reps. Collin Peterson of Minnesota and Dan Lipinski of Illinois -- are among the lawmakers who signed.
The brief argues that "Roe's jurisprudence has been haphazard from the beginning."
The decision "remains a radically unsettled precedent" that "has been substantially undermined by subsequent authority," the group continues, adding that court rulings since Roe "clearly did not settle the abortion issue." The group urges the justices to "reconsider those precedents."

Their timing couldn't be worse. From the article, I know this is linked to an abortion case being heard in March, but honestly, couldn't they hold off on this until after the election so that sleepy Democrats and Independents and pro-choice never-trumper Republican voters wouldn't get fired up? I had hoped they would keep their eyes focused on the economy and not the courts.

No question, this is what Pro-lifers have fought for, for decades now. But the timing of this couldn't be worse. It's a horrible position for Pro-lifers to be in. We want abortion ended as soon as possible to save children's lives. Yet if we screw up the timing of this battle, we could lose the most pro-life President we've ever had and flip the courts to lean liberal for decades to come. Should that happen, billions of babies will be slaughtered in the womb-and outside of it, as we've been hearing from several states now. It's evil and disgusting -we can't afford to lose this battle.

The presidential race for Democrats will be about this sole issue now. Democrats had NOTHING to run on...until now. 

Most Republicans I know, almost always run on the courts as being one of their top 3 issues for voting Republican, because we have always wanted to get rid of abortion. Republican voters have always known that this is where the real power is in this nation, the courts. Democrats just figured that out with Trump's Kavanaugh selection. 

This will turn Independents who were considering Trump to now back the Democrat if the Independents are of the "woman's body, woman's choice" point of view. 

We Pro-lifer's all want the same thing, but we have to be smart to defeat such evil. 

Trump has done so much for the Pro-life Cause...now this just made it that much harder for Trump to win a 2nd term which would give him 4 more years of packing the courts with conservative judges- we need that to happen. Pray for our President, he's gonna need it against such evil this election cycle.

We have to continue our prayers for the end of legal abortion remembering that even if the Supreme Court does over-turn Roe vs Wade, the states will still have the ability to legalize abortions. The fight won't end at the Supreme Court. We have to continue the fight beyond the Supreme Court. 

Keep up the prayers and the fight to end ALL abortions! May God help this nation become pro-life. 🙏


In Christ, 

Julie 


Links: 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/02/politics/congress-asks-supreme-court-to-reconsider-abortion-case/index.html 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/02/politics/read-lawmakers-filing-to-supreme-court-roe-v-wade/index.html 

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/04/politics/abortion-supreme-court-louisiana/index.html